Henry Rifle Forums

Hi all, have question for anyone. I have a .44 Henry steel Big Boy, as I was going through different ammo for sighting in, I bought some “Buffalo Bore 240gr Deer Granade”, after loading the tube and tried to cycle a round in I found out it’s just a hair long! After a little cussing, I went and bought some different ammo to try in .44 mag, and have no problem cycling it. Anyone else come across this? Or any other ammo issues?

Try measuring the overall length of one of these rounds. My reading reveals OAL should not exceed 1.61 in a lever action rifle.

I contacted Buffalo Bore, and they replied they have 4 loads that will not work in my Henry, just a little suprised I had not seen a disclaimer anywhere about this,

haven't tried Buffalo Bore so I can't speak to using them .... what I can say is our Henry 44 Mag hasn't had any issues with all of the various factory ammo we've tried .... we do load our own to Nosler Manual specs with no issues

If the rounds are close in length and a lead bullet, couldn't you file a small amount of lead off to shorten it?
Jim

couldn't you file a small amount of lead off to shorten it?

Its not so much the tip of the bullet being too long but the ogive of the bullet extending too far and starting to engage the rifling before the round is completely chambered.
What surprises me is this is a 'typical' weight for a .44 bullet, should not be too long and should have a 'cannelure' around the bullet to indicate where the case is to crimp into - which normally ensures proper cartridge OAL.

Never be able to shave the same amount off, leave the same profile, load into the chamber the same. Never be accurate. I’ll shoot em out of my revolvers. Just suprised nobody else has had a problem

Take a pic of one of the rounds and post it please.

Bullet in question

this might be worth considering :

"Approximate overall cartridge length: 1.76 in. (please
note: this exceeds SAAMI MAX OAL of 1.61")
Because of the compressed powder charge, OAL will vary"

taken from this source https://www.cabelas.com/product/Buffalo ... 740558.uts

My 357 is the same anything longer than 1.585 it starts to not like it.

BigAl52 those look like SWC. I don’t know about henry’s because I never used SWC in a lever action just because my Marlin 94 CBC owners manual says my rifle is safe with any factory ammo(excluding wadcutters and shotshells). I just think SWC would be harder to feed also.

Yes they are a SWC look alike. Ive run some thru my Henrys with success. But the OAL cannot exceed the max length or they will not feed correctly. As the OP said there over OAL.

I had a problem yesterday with factory Hornady 225 gr FTX. I can’t speak to feeding because I was loading one at a time. However, I had one case that was very difficult to eject. I’m guessing it wasn’t sized properly at the factory. Took some force to open the bolt and eject the case.

Because of the compressed powder charge, OAL will vary"

This is not acceptable with 'factory' ammo - to admit the OAL will vary.
Sounds like Buffalo Bore is not adhering to factory specs with their ammo and are in effect 'playing with fire'
Personally I wouldn't use their ammo - dang near like 'trusting' someone else's reloads.

I have been thinking of hunting with hard cast and looked at Buffalo Bore and ( at least on their site) the Deer Grenade page clearly states that the round is too long for Henry rifles.....

SB44mag wrote:I have been thinking of hunting with hard cast ....

what do you plan to hunt, under what conditions, at what distances ..

JEBar wrote:

SB44mag wrote:I have been thinking of hunting with hard cast ....

what do you plan to hunt, under what conditions, at what distances ..

I mostly hunt Whitetail in thick brush with a 50 yd shot being long and have never had any issues with over the counter loads, but lately I have had a strong urge to harvest some Pork . Was considering hard cast more for penetration without mushrooming.

but also a little concerned of them being a little much for my Big Boy

at 50 yards (or even twice that) a 44mag can deliver a devastating deer, boar, black bear hunting round .... several companies offer deep penetrating jacketed bullets .... I'm partial to Barnes Buster Bullets 44 Remington Magnum (429 Diameter) 300 Grain Flat Nose Flat Base .... they are kind of expensive but for big game hunting one box would last me for decades


https://www.midwayusa.com/product/96602 ... -box-of-50

Not that I'm an enabler or anything, but shooting those Buffalo Bore loads and other non-SAAMI spec loads is a great excuse for buying a single shot 44 mag like my Contenders or the Henry.